Vodka vaccination and 15 more grandma’s gardening secrets

Ever notice that your grandmothers talked to plants and stroked the tops of their heads like little children? The grateful plants were succulent and fruitful. But there is a scientific explanation for this. When the hands touch the seedlings, ethylene is released, which inhibits the stretching of the seedlings, which contributes to good rooting and a strong stem.

What other tricks of your ancestors will help you grow the best harvest?

Milk

The grandmothers could use the village fresh milk, but store milk will help us too. It is used to feed vegetable plants and to protect against pests: some insects do not digest lactose and die. For watering cucumbers, tomatoes, beets, carrots and onions, one glass of milk is diluted in a ten-liter bucket. Please note that peppers and eggplants do not like milk solution, the fruits grow smaller than they could be. Milk solution can be sprayed on roses from aphids.

Bread leaven

Bread plant food is prepared from uneaten bread reserves. Naturally dried bread is soaked in water, left to stand for a week, and the resulting mixture is watered on the ground under the plants. Remember that toasted or oven-dried bread will not work. The main secret of this fertilizer is yeast, which has a large amount of trace elements and growth stimulants. This mixture is not used for potatoes, onions and garlic.

Needles for strawberries

For mulching strawberry bushes (strawberry), fallen needles are best suited. First, the taste of the berry improves. Secondly, the bushes will not be touched by diseases and pests. Nematoda, gray rot and weevil do not like resinousness and ethereal discharge from needles.

Salt

In case of poor growth of carrots, you need to pour it with saline: 1 tablespoon of salt per 10 liters of water. Sodium chloride (salt) promotes the rapid decomposition of organic matter necessary for the rhizome. Useful substances dissolve, are better absorbed into the plant. Also, pests such as carrot and onion flies do not like salt.

Ammonia water

Our ancestors have long known the miraculous power of an aqueous solution of ammonia. It is used as a high nitrogenous top dressing for most crops. Fertilized plants grow faster, increase the growth of green mass, and pests run far from ammonia. For the correct concentration, you need to dilute 2 tablespoons of 10% ammonia in 10 liters of water. Do not change the proportions so as not to burn the root system.

Foil

To ripen the vegetables faster, place food foil under the tomato or pepper stalks. The sun’s rays, bouncing off the mirror surface, will give more light, or rather, the ultraviolet rays necessary for the plant. Some gardeners for seedlings put walls wrapped in foil, in this case it grows stronger.

Garlic

Harvest it unripe rather than standing in the ground. Overripe garlic keeps worse. Firstly, because it manages to be amazed by various diseases, and secondly, it does not have time to dry out properly. And also because the outer rind becomes thinner, the garlic loses its juiciness and quickly becomes sluggish.

cucumbers

Now it is much easier to water the garden: there is drip irrigation and different nozzles for the hoses. But your grandmother will never use modern technology for watering cucumbers. She will carry a scoop of water from a container heated by the sun. And this is correct, because cucumbers love warm water, they cannot be watered with a hose. The water temperature should be at least 25 degrees.

Alcohol

To accelerate the ripening and reddening of tomatoes, they are inoculated with vodka. 0,5 ml of diluted alcohol or vodka is injected with a disposable syringe. The tomato turns red at the injection site faster, so some people do stuffing on both sides of the fruit. This does not change the taste of tomato, it does not become “drunk” and does not change the chemical composition of the pulp. 

Sterile cucumbers

At air temperatures above 30 degrees, pollen from cucumbers becomes sterile, that is, its ability to fertilize disappears. That is why, in hot weather, cucumbers must be cooled by spraying.

Manure and ash 

It is not necessary to mix manure or bird droppings with ash, in this case the amount of nitrogen is sharply reduced. By the way, this is the advice that goes against the great-great-grandmother’s recipes. Science has long proven that these two fertilizers are incompatible. Add them at different times: ash during planting, and manure during growth.

Marigold

The orange-yellow flower with a pungent odor repels many pests. Plant it in a ring around fruit trees.

Potato skin

Potato peelings mulched into the soil around the currants will increase the favorable conditions for the shrub. He loves starch, and pests do not respect him.

Honey

To attract pollinating insects, you need to put bait with honey liquid. 

Pumpkin

In order for the fruits to receive more nutrition, pin the pumpkin lashes to the ground. They will take root and supply more food for the orange beauty.

Fruit trees

Cherry loves nitrogen fertilizers, while pear and apple loves potassium. Don’t get confused.

Our dear old people knew the compatibility of plants.

• Phytophthora on potatoes can be easily prevented by planting beets and tomatoes nearby.

• A cabbage butterfly will not touch its delicacy if dill grows nearby.

• For cabbage, an ideal neighborhood next to potatoes, cucumbers, garlic.

• Cucumbers love the neighborhood of corn, beans, garlic, beets, cabbage, carrots.

• Tomatoes will grow stronger next to cabbage, radishes, garlic, onions, carrots, gooseberries, and apple trees.

• Dill and cucumbers planted side by side is a wonderful union.

• Onions are best planted in the place where the mustard grew.

• Peas are sown next to mustard.

• Good neighbors for a watermelon are sunflowers, radishes, beets, peas, corn, potatoes, onions, eggplants.